Rotary mudding clamp and method of mudding wells



May 12, 1925.

H. B. SOYSTER E T AL ROTABYYMUDDING CLAMP AND METHOD OFMUDDING WELLS medoct. 5; 1922 A@ l. l. A w w l 7 To all whom it may concern.'

Patented May 192, 192.5.

UNITED STATES 1,537,199 PATENT oFFlcE.

HALE 1B. SOYSTER AND HARVEY W. LEE, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

RQTARY-MUDDING CLAMP AND METHOD F MUDDING WELLS.

Application filed October 3, 1922. Serial No. 592,102.

IBe it known 'that we, HALE B. SoYsTER and HARVET" W. LEE, citizens ofthe United States, residing at Los Angeles, 4in the county ofLos'Angeles and State of Cali fornia, have invented a new and usefulRotary Mudding Clamp and Method of Mudding Wells, of which the followingis a specification.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for mudding wells, suchas oil wells.

In the construction or use of wells, particularly oil wells, frequentlyporous formations are encountered which it is desirable to seal beforedrilling or operating below,

'thereby' preventing the migration of oil,

water or gas from one formation to another. Commonly these porousformations are sealed by forcing `fluid mud under pressure into theporous formation. This has hitherto been accomplished in anumber ofdifferent manners but generally it is Ypreferred to first seal thecasing and string of inner pipe and subsequently pump fluid mud underressure into the porous formation, thus c ogging or sealing theformation. This method 'has the advantave of noi'J re quiring. theremoval of the ldrilling pipe from' the casing and permits the-mud to bepumped directly to the porous formation before being/discharged into thewell casing. By thisfmethod, however, the string of pipe has beenfrequently frozen or mudded into the well and couldv be removed, if atall, only with extreme difficulty.

Ve have found that by rotating the string of pipe during such ai muddingoperation the tendency of the pipe to freeze in the casingcould beeliminated. ith the foregoing preliminary remarks, our invention willbemore thoroughly understood from reference to the following def.scription of the accompanying drawings clamp. Fig. 3 is a horizontalsection on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.,

Referring to Figure 1 of the drawings there is shown in section theearth formation through which the well is drilled. A

'sized casings.

porous formation is generally indicated at 1 which formation it isdesired to mud. 2 indicates a customary well pit and 3 indicates thewell casing. 'l'he top collar 15 of the 60 well casing is indicatedasbeingclosed by a mudding cramp 4 which is utilized both to seal thetop of the casing'and permit rotation of the string of inner pipe 5which in this case is shown terminating in a fishfluid mud which isindicated by a mud 7 tank 11. f I

33 indicates a conductor line provided4 with asuitable control valve 34leading from theA well casing to the mud supply.

Referring to Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings the muddin'g clamp 4;y isillustrated as comprising mainly a casingsealingmember 12 having acentral bore and a pipe supporting member'20 having a bore extendingvertically through said member which member 20 is journaled insaid'sealingjmember 12. Said sealing member 12 is provided with `a base13 having two annular notches 14 in its lower face which notches 11i are,adapted to fit the end collar *151 of the well casing. enablingthe'same clamp to fit two different.

31 indicates suitable packing 1 which' is inserted betweenthe collar andsealing member 12. Said lmember 12 is fur- Two. of these notches areshown ther provided withafcylindrical shell portion' 16extending-upwardly from the base 13. In the bottom of vsaid shellportion a race plate 17 is placed against the base. Said race plate isgrooved as- 'indicated at 18 to accommodate cone bearings 19 which 1fill saidgroove 18., The pipe supporting member 20 comprises a lowerpipe stem portion 21 having a running fit with `the base 13 of themember 12, an upper pipe stem portion 32 arl an intermediate flange 22which is adapted to loosely fit in the shell portion 16 of the mempber12. Abutting the bottom of said flange is provided a race plate 23having .a cone notch 24 which fits over the cone bearings 19 and permitsthe l lmember 20 to be rotatively supported on said cone bearings 19.There is -thus pron CII low as 150 pounds vided a thrust bearing betweenthe base 13 and the pipe supporting member. An annular cover plate 25 isscrewed into the top of the shell portion 16 and fits over the flange 22of the member 21, thereby pre-4 venting an upward displacement of saidmember. 26 indicates a suitable pipe coupling connecting the string ofpipe with the lower stemV portion 21 and 27 indicates a similar couplingof the pipe to the upper stem portion.

28 indicates a packing gland which is screw-threaded into the bottom ofthe member 12 and forced against packing material 29 for sealing `theinner pipe to said memy ber. place.

For better understanding of the mudding clamp 4, it can lbe stated thatall the parts illustrated in Fig. l2 of the draw-V ings are cylindricalin shape with the exception of the cone bearings 19. lIn normal drillingoperations the string of pipe 5 is supported from\ the hook 8. lVhe-n itis desired to mud the formation 1, all that is required is tolirst drawthe/string of drilling pipe above the rotary table T and place themudding cla-mp 4 in the string of pipe. The string of pipe is thenlowered until the'clamp 4 fits upon the upper collar of the well casing.Said clamp 4 then supportsthe weight of the inner pipe 5 and is heldfirmly against the casing preventing a subsequent escape of mud from thetop of the casing. The inner pipe 5 is then rotatedby the t-able 7 inthe customary manner. The pump 10 is operated to ump Huid-mud from thesupply 11 throug the inner pipe 5 which is discharged at the end of thepipe. Inthe case illustrated, the mud is forced from the fish-tail bit 6through the waterfflutes customarily provided. The mud fills the well'and is forced outward into the porous formation 1 by application .ofsuitable pressure. Normally the pressure required in the muddinoFoperation is around 250- pounds gauge. owever, pressure as may beoccasionally used, Preferably'during the mudding operation the valve 34on th conductor line is partially opened to permit a circulation of themud.

It can be seen that while the mud will necessarily fill the casingoutside the inner pipe 5 the rotation of said inner pipe`will eliminatethe freezing or mudding of this pipe solidly into the hole.

lVlile we have set forth a preferred apparatus and means for conductingthis A locking nut holds the gland in i which mudding operation it isunderstood that various advantages and modifications may be made|therein without depart-ing from the spirit of the invention. of thescope set forth claims:

We claim: j

1. A process of mudding a porous formation below the casing of a wellwhich comprises forcing mud through a string of pipe to said formationwhile rotating said pipe and while maintaining the upper end of thecasing sealed.

2. A mudding clamp comprising a clamp base adapted to seal a wellcasing, a clamp 'stem adapted toconnecta string of pipe, race platesvbetween said base and plate and bearing cones between said race plates.

3. A process of mudding a well having a well casing and a stringof pipetherein which comprises substantiallyclosing the space between the upperend of said casing and pipe, rotating said pipe and forcing mud throughsaid inner pipe at a pressure greater than 150 pounds gauge.

4. A process of mudding a well having a well casing and a string, ofpipe therein comprises so sealing the top of the casing that escape ofmud therefrom may be prevented and rotation of the inner pipe ispermitted, rotating said pipe, forcing fluid mud under pressure throughsaid pipe, and drawing mud from the casing top.

5. A mudding clamp for sealing the space between a well casing and astring of pipe therein, comprising a base member formed to rest 'uponthe well casing and having a central vertical bore, a tubular memberhaving a rumiing fit with said base and an outwardly extended flange,and al thrust. bearing between the flange and base adapted todepcndingly support said pipe string upon said base. i

6. .A mudding clamp for sealing the space between a well casing andstring of pipe therein, comprising a base member adapted to rest uponthe well casing and having :1- vertical bore, a tubular member formed atits upper and lower ends for connection' with a string of pipe andhaving a ruiming fit with said base and an outwardly extending annularflange, a thrust bearing between said tubular member and base, and meansfor packing the tubular member to the base.

Signed at Los Angeles, California this 27th day of September' 1922.

HALE B. SOYSTER. HARVEY lV.' LEE.

in the following Our invention is

